Faces from the Past
by Sunsetslight
Summary: Seven years after she dreamed of a world filled with spirits, Chihiro finds herself wondering if her journey had been more than a dream. She has little time to contemplate this as she becomes mother to her little sister and must put her life on hold.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One: Dream or Reality**

* * *

Author's Note: So the story may not make too much sense right now, but the next chapter will reveal more of what went on in the seven years since the movie took place.

* * *

Chihiro held the warm bundle close to her heart, and wept. This morning her small family of two that consisted of her mother and her had become subject to the game of fates, and her mother had rolled the dice, moved forward two steps, back one, and chosen the card that read a life for a life. The cold unfeeling walls of the hospital seemed to hold her in their embrace, stinking of death and cleaning solution. This was no place for a newborn child.

A hand came to rest on her should shaking her from the world of her thoughts that seemed to be constantly spiraling out of control. Chihiro looked up into a set of warm brown eyes and remembered the midwife that had delivered her little sister. The eyes were too warm however, unnervingly so and the girl felt herself instinctively stepping away from the woman. "The child, I'll hold her while you say goodbye to your mother," a compelling tone, very much honey laced with poison.

What was the woman saying, Chihiro couldn't quite make out the words from the mugginess inside her head, but she did feel her arms making the move to hand over the child. She watched as she extended her arms and the babe, swathed in pink moved closer to the eager woman. She struggled to speak, but couldn't, compelled by an inner strength to protect the small fingers and toes, the eyes yet unopened since a first weak cry, the small tuft of honey brown hair the sprinkled the head of her little sister. This child was the only family she had left, and she was going to protect her.

"No," the word was a small, meek sounding squeak, breaking something deep inside her. Chihiro felt strength and control return to her body, and she clutched the bundle close to her chest and started to make the retreat. Her shoes squeaked on the linoleum floor, and her step faltered. She walked backward, keeping her eyes trained on the midwife, whose expression appeared almost comical, turning first from surprise, to despair, to anger. The woman's eyes glowed red, and large boils began to grow from her skin. Wrinkles and cracks molded her face. She wasn't human.

"A spirit," Chihiro breathed. But that had been seven years ago, when she was eleven. It had been only a dream brought on by exhaustion and stress, maybe even the heat. Spirits did not exists, and even if they did, why would they be after her little sister?

"Mam is something wrong?" the voice was patient, soft, and completely human. Chihiro spun to find that she had bumped into a young attending. The man was holding her shoulder to steady her. She hadn't realized she'd been shaking. Could he not see the creature, the monster that stood only a few meters away? Could he not smell the acidic smell of the liquid which poured forth from the boils? Was she the only one who could see the spirit? She turned and the woman was gone.

When Chihiro did not respond and only stared at the doctor, he placed a hand to her forehead. "She's in shock," he muttered. She shivered; she mustn't tell anyone what she had seen. They would never believe her, they hadn't seven years ago, and they wouldn't now. She must not tell or they would take her sister from her. She must guard the child who came into the world without a father and the price of her mother's love and life.

"No, I'm fine," she said on a shaky breath. The man did not look like he believed her, the understanding dawned in his eyes.

"You're the daughter of the woman who passed," he muttered to himself. The coming to an internal decision he straightened and looked down at her. "Child how old are you?"

Chihiro was taken aback by the turn in the conversation. "I'm seventeen, going on eighteen." She realized he was thinking about her guardianship. She instinctively held the child closer. He almost laughed at the protective gesture. He had known their mother in passing.

"How would you like to stay with me until you're come of age legally? It would give you time to figure out what you're going to do about school and sort out your finances," he said. Chihiro wanted to grab onto the hand he extended, but she didn't know him. He didn't look like a spirit. He seemed genuine and harmless. Chihiro found herself nodding slowly at the idea. She of course would not stay for long. She would find a place, get a job, quit school, raise her sister, and find out more about the spirits and her "dream" from eleven years ago. Then another thought crossed her mind, if the spirit were real, then could her river spirit really be out there somewhere. A longing she had long since squished years ago, began to burn again slowly. But that was a dream for another night, another time, when she had time.


	2. A Job and A NameAnd Lights

**Chapter Two: A Job and A Name...And Lights**

* * *

Author's Note: Hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter!

* * *

Eggs sizzled in the pan, while laughter filtered in through the opening between the small kitchen and living room. The sound was soft and warm, wrapping Chihiro in a feeling of nostalgia when she had been the one laughing.

A hand rested on her shoulder and Chihiro let out a breath she had not realized she was holding. The gesture was meant as a comforting one, a luxury she was loath to let go of, a luxury she had been fighting since the moment she'd left the doctor's protective home on the eve of her eighteenth birthday. He was like the father she had lost as a little girl the year after the strange dream run with spirits. Her father had become depressed, almost as if he were a shadow the man he had once been. Her mother had struggled to keep him alive, but nothing had ever been enough. He vanished.

A week after the search was called off the police found his body washed up near the abandoned amusement park. It was as if he had been searching for something when he passed. She twisted the watch on her wrist; it had been his.

"It's not your fault darling," he said reassuring, almost knowingly, as if he could tell exactly what she was thinking. Chihiro smiled. She knew that it had not been her fault, and yet she could never shake the feeling that somehow she had been involved.

"I know Old Man," she smiled. He cringed at the nickname.

"Now hold on a sec. Old man? I'm no more than thirty-eight, young lady," the banter was good-natured and the evening seemed to fall in line as every other evening had for the past years. The doctor would occasionally visit to check up on the girls, slyly bringing some sort of food or medicine disguised as a gift for Chihiro's hospitality.

She remembered the first time he had visited. It had only been a couple of weeks since she had left his home at the time. She had found a one room apartment on the lower end of the city for next to nothing. It was all she could afford on the small sum she earned from the noodle shop deliveries. The room had been unfurnished, with no modern amenities. In order to cook or shower she had to share a common kitchen and restroom with the rest of the apartment's inhabitants. The conditions had not initially been unbearable though. Then came the hunger.

Chihiro was forced to pick up another part-time job delivering milk and newspapers in the mornings in order to make ends meet. The meals were getting sparser in their substance as the price of baby formula and diapers climbed. The baby cried all day and all night. The neighbors were beginning to complain. Within half a month she had reached rock bottom on her funds, and from the bottom of a dark spot she looked up to find a single friendly face in this world silently offering help.

The doctor had come to visit her at her house, bringing with him a house warming gift, _extra _vegetables from his garden and a personal dish he made – the first of many hospitality gifts. He had lifted her spirits and encouraged her to keep going. Over the next year she had bargained for old furniture, slowly populating the room.

Her little sister had lived without a name for the first six months of her life. Everyone at the noodles shop just smiled at the baby on her back and called simply "Baby". The baby often fell ill, getting only fitful rest when sleep came, and crying loud throaty cries until her face went red. Chihiro began to feel desperate, she needed to get her sister to a pediatrician, but the prices were all more than she could afford. If she took the child to the hospital without insurance they would surely turn her away, or worse, they would take the child and tell her she was unfit to be her guardian. In fact, they would think they were doing her a favor by giving her back the life of a normal eighteen year old and taking from her the burdens of a single mother rather than the a little sister, the only reason in her life to keep living.

Finally she had chosen the name Lin. She had chosen the name on a whim, partially. The night had snuck up on her the night she named her sister, creeping into the stiffness in her bones and releasing them to sleep.

The world she slipped into was brilliant, vibrant, and very much alive around her. She felt an electricity surging up through her body where her bare feet touched the grass. She knew her life was tied into the world which she had entered. Chihiro had felt her body begin to move on its own, following a route to someplace that her heart seemed to know despite the lack of connection in her brain. As she walked through a street lined with restaurants familiar mouth-watering smells reached her nose and all manner of creature moved around her. They did not seem to notice she existed.

Then she was at the top of a set of impossibly steep steps, and all but tripped down them, tumbling into the warmth of what appeared to be a boiler room. Steam wafted out of the little room, smelling of herbal mixtures and soot. She heard a conversation of soft mumbles just around the corner, and then very distinctly the name Lin was repeated over and over again as the steam in the room became thicker, clouding her vision, and numbing her senses.

She was not sure how long she slept before she heard the urgent knocking on the door. "Hello, is anyone in! My name is Lin! I am a pediatrician!" The knocking continued, prompting Chihiro to struggle to her feet. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and noticed suddenly the lack of noise from within the house. "You doctor friend sent me! I'm his brother!" Instantly awake she crossed the space to the door in two steps and wrenched open the door to find a slightly harried man in his early twenties, black hair dripping from standing in the rain.

Underneath all the hair was a pair of jade green eyes, befitting a person named Lin, and holding her in sway. Yet she felt that there was another named Lin, long ago, who too had come to her rescue. She let the man in and then rushed to her sister's little basinet. The pediatrician, Lin, picked up the baby and laid her on a mat he had brought with him. As Chihiro hovered nearby, the doctor worked at checking the baby over from her baby fuzz head to her tiny little toes. She stared at him through large amber eyes in wonder.

After what felt like a lifetime the doctor had stood and pronounced that the child had caught a cold and was suffering more than normal due to an innate poor immune system. The cure: a change in environment. He smiled at the relief that showed on Chihiro's face. "So what's the fighter's name?" he asked amiably. In that instant Chihiro knew the baby's name, her true name, Lin.

"Lin," Chihiro replied.

"That's a strong name. I should know," he laughed. Chihiro saw a lot of pediatrician after that, trading food and company for Little Lin's checkups. Then he had offered her a job as his personal secretary, prompting her to take the job because it paid better than the noodle shop. She had warred with herself for a while over the idea of taking a job. She did not want to take advantage of the man who had saved her sister, nor did she want to strain their comfortable relationship due to tension at work. Chihiro quite valued their friendship. Then again she really needed the money in order to move to a better place for her little sister who was beginning to crawl. Eventually she took it. That had been the best decision of her life.

She helped patients in the waiting room and learned how to use technology that she would not have had a chance to use otherwise – phones, computer programs, different medical gadgets. She realized she had a passion for helping people. She gained a dream. One day when her sister was older she wanted to go back to school and get a degree. She wanted to be a doctor, or some kind of health professional. She did not want to have that helpless feeling she felt with her mother first, then her little sister.

"Take the day off tomorrow," doctor Mamoru was saying around a mouthful of food, "I'm sure my brother Lin will not mind. Besides didn't you say you were starting night classes tomorrow? Take the day to get acquainted with you little sister's new babysitter." He was making sense, and yet Chihiro hated missing work, it meant less money with which to feed Little Lin.

"I know but," she began, and then met the look of her friend that brooked no arguments. She sighed, looking down at her four year old sister. She would start school next year, growing up so fast. She missed the cooing of the baby and the ability to sit her in one spot without her getting into trouble. "Alright. I'll take the day off," Chihiro rose to her feet as the Doctor Mamoru got up. She walked with him to the door of the small country home. She offered to walk him to the bus station, and he accepted, knowing that she would come even if he said no. Chihiro grabbed Lin and they walked with the doctor to the station, giving him a hug before he boarded the bus. Then they began their return trip.

The cool night air pricked the girls' skin and Lin dropped Chihiro's hand to hug her leg instead. Chihiro smiled at the warmth that pressed into her leg. Then the older girl looked up and for a brief second she thought she could hear and see life in the old amusement park, and then it died and the night returned. Lin appeared to have seen and heard nothing. If she had, she showed no signs of it, and so the two hurried home.

Chihiro knew the amusement park had been closed for several years, and so the brief sound of carnival music and the sudden appearance of neon lights unnerved her.


End file.
